Video servers are servers which have a number of video signal stored in a memory and which transmit selected video signal to their customers on demand.
One possibility of transmitting video signals is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,343. The customers inquire about video films currently available from the video server via a digital telephone network, and select one of them. The selected video signal is transmitted from the video server over a broadband additional channel of the digital telephone network, and displayed to the customer on a television set. To provide the broadband additional channel, several digital-cross connect systems are necessary. Because of the nonuniform utilization of the broadband additional channels, the transmission capacity of the digital telephone network is not optimally utilized. Moreover, the selection of the video film involves a considerable amount of technical complexity, since it requires a protocol adaptation facility, a so-called video gateway, and a network management system.